Edelman and Diniz Lead the Way as Men's Volleyball Dethrones King 3-1

MISENHEIMER, N.C. – Host Pfeiffer University scored a 3-1 (25-11, 25-19, 23-25, 25-20) victory over King College hitting .345 in NCAA I Conference Carolinas men’s volleyball action on Tuesday night. The Falcons improve to 9-5 overall, 8-2 in league play while the Tornado fall to 8-10, 4-8.

Pfeiffer cruised comfortably in the first two sets starting with a 25-11 victory in the opening stanza. Eric Edelman (Henrietta, NY) picked up an early kill for an 11-3 Pfeiffer lead before a Caleb Brophy (Mission Viejo, CA) and Fabio Diniz (Belo Horizonte, BRAZIL) kill with a David Specian (Loxahatchee, FL) ace in-between, shot the Falcons out to an 18-7 advantage. Edelman would pick up two of the Falcons’ final kills in the first set to go up 1-0 in the match.

In the second set, a pair of King errors and another kill from Edelman opened up an 11-10 lead to 14-10. As the Tornado tried to make a comeback, a Diniz kill and three-straight King miscues allowed for a Falcons set two victory as Micah Bortner (Dallastown, PA) put down the sets final kill.

A lineup change in set three aided the Tornado stave off elimination as three-straight Pfeiffer hitting errors tied at 21-21 gave King set point while a brief pair of kills by Edelman kept the Falcons alive at 24-23. An ensuing service ace by the Falcons gave King their 25-23 set three win.

King had an early set four advantage until a kill by Kyle Landrigan (Delmar, NY) and ace by Diniz put the hosts up 12-11. Either trailing by one or tied through most of set four, Edelman would give the Falcons the lead for good with another kill at 19-18 while Landrigan helped out with two of the Falcons’ final three kills for the 25-20 set and 3-1 match win.

Edelman led all attackers with 16 kills on the night while Diniz put down 11 and hit .688 with no errors. Specian, the league-leader in assists, added to his lead with 47 assists on the night and recorded a team-high eight digs. Matthew Harper (Matoaca, VA) had a team-high 10 kills for the Tornado.

Pfeiffer quickly gets back to action on Wednesday night traveling to Barton for another 7:00 p.m. league matchup with the Bulldogs. Live stats/video will be available through http://www.gofalconsports.com.